In a general sense, a structural component can be any part that is designed to carry or bear some amount of load or force. Load-bearing construction materials, reinforcement materials, impact-resistant materials such as armor, and structural members of automobiles are just a few examples of the many types of products that include structural components. One type of a structural component is a containment vessel, also referred to herein more generically as a container or a tank. Containment vessels are used for storing many things, including fluids such as liquids and gases. In many cases the contents of a tank will be pressurized to store a larger volume. As a well-known example, consumer-grade propane tanks are commonly sold storing a volume of propane gas under pressure that can be released by hand valve. Larger tanks for storing the fertilizer anhydrous ammonia are also well known. Anhydrous ammonia must be stored at high pressure and low temperature to maintain a liquid phase. Thus, large commercial-grade tanks must be designed to withstand the pressure exerted on the tank walls by the compressed ammonia. Another example includes containment vessels designed for storing compressed natural gas under high pressure, which can be useful for transporting a large volume of gas in a smaller, portable vessel, as in the case of vehicles that use compressed natural gas as a fuel. Of course many other examples of containers and, more generally, structural components exist.
For a containment vessel, it can be useful to design the container to withstand greater pressures so that the container can store larger volumes of gas under higher pressures without failing. More generally, it is often desirable to simply increase the load bearing capacity of any type of structural component. One common method of increasing load bearing capacity is to simply reinforce existing support structures. For example, cylindrical tanks with thicker walls can provide higher tensile and rupture strengths than a tank with thinner walls. Another well-known method of increasing the load bearing capacity of a structural component is to incorporate geometric curves or arcs into the design of the component. Typical foam materials having a cell structure incorporating spherically-shaped voids provide one example of a technique for increasing load bearing capacity. Cylindrical gas tanks provide another example of a component incorporating a curved design. The cylindrical geometry of the tank wall more evenly distributes the load exerted by the pressurized gas inside the tank.
Structural components, including containers, can be made from a wide variety of materials using many different methods. Casting is one well-known process that has been used to manufacture a variety of structural components.